'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' -- It's about integrity, senators

Recently the nation's top military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, told Congress that, as "a matter of integrity," the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy should be lifted. Years earlier, political strategist James Carville said of the 1992 presidential election: "It's about the economy, stupid." Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Carville, key adviser to candidate Bill Clinton, each nailed the crux of their respective issues.

The integrity argument resonates with me because I write as a lesbian who was on a path to higher rank in the Navy and was required continually to surrender my integrity. As a commanding officer I had to discharge about eight young men and women because they were gay or lesbian. Signing my name to the discharge papers that ended the careers of talented sailors was the tipping point that led to my own resignation in 1980.

Consider the dictionary definition of integrity: "an unimpaired condition, soundness, a firm adherence to a code of moral values, the quality or state of being complete." According to retired Army Col. Paul Dodd of the Chaplain Corps, "the Army chaplaincy took the definition further, 'the etymology of integrity (integer) suggests wholeness and completeness, as an undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting. Having everything that is needed. Being one unit.' ... well integrated, without divisiveness and fragmentation. In other words, unit cohesion."

Critics of changing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy argue the debate is not about resolving the integrity issue for the young gay sailor, soldier, Marine, airman or Coast Guardsman. Nor is it about civil rights. Rather, individuals such as Sens. John McCain, Saxby Chambliss and Jeff Sessions say, maintaining a policy that other nations, such as England and Israel, have abandoned comes down to unit cohesion and military readiness.

Since the policy's inception these unit cohesion and readiness arguments have been shot full of holes by research analyses and studies. Why can't these senators let go and support repeal of a policy that itself has no integrity, no soundness?

Key political values underlying any particular policy or officials' views are freedom, equality and security; often these values conflict with one another as policy is drafted or redrafted. Those who insist that military gays must not serve openly are expressing concern about security aspects of military units that might have a few gays serving openly.

But proponents of repeal believe national security is endangered by upholding a law that has no integrity. They argue, as Adm. Mullen stated, that the overall reason to change the law is to establish a more effective (integral) unit, command and service.

Behind "don't ask, don't tell" supporters' statements is probably fear, fear of the unknown. I have found that military-politico conservatives think they don't know many gays and lesbians (though they probably know quite a few). This is particularly true in our military subculture where it is supposedly verboten to talk about gay and lesbian issues. Furthermore, numbers of gay, lesbian and bisexual military service members are smaller than in the nation as a whole. Gary Gates, a demographer at the UCLA School of Law and author of "The Gay and Lesbian Atlas," estimates that the active duty force has about 1 percent personnel who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, while the total force (active and reserves) has 2.2 percent. Experts calculate the U.S. gay/lesbian/bisexual population to be 4.1 percent.

As the daughter of a World War II submarine hero, after 21 years of service I chose to leave the Navy early for being forced to compromise my integrity. I chose not to move on to broader command responsibilities as strongly recommended by my superiors and my father, a retired admiral.

Mullen clearly understands that "everyone counts" in his forces and that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy compromises the integrity of the individual, both gay and straight, as well as the integrity of the military institution itself, including thousands of military commanders who are enforcing antiquated federal law.

Each year more than 3,000 gay, lesbian and bisexual members of our armed services either resign early or decide not to re-enlist. Under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, 80percent of those discharged leave because they "tell."